Alex Lyon focused on returning to NHL after debut

Chris Szagola / AP

Goalie Alex Lyon made his NHL debut last Wednesday against the Capitals and then got his first NHL start the next night against the New Jersey Devils. He started again Saturday against the Senators, before getting sent back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Goalie Alex Lyon made his NHL debut last Wednesday against the Capitals and then got his first NHL start the next night against the New Jersey Devils. He started again Saturday against the Senators, before getting sent back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. (Chris Szagola / AP)

It wasn’t his first NHL call-up — Lyon has been promoted three times this season and had just been called up the week prior — but this time he did make his NHL debut.

With 10:54 left in the third period of last Wednesday’s loss to the Capitals, Flyers starter Michal Neuvirth was pulled and Lyon got his first taste of an NHL game.

Washington’s Brett Connolly gave him his initial test less than 30 seconds later and his second task was facing one of the game’s biggest names — Alex Ovechkin. Lyon wasn’t starstruck, he was focused on playing hard and enjoying it later.

“It was definitely a good way to set the tone,” Lyon said after Tuesday’s practice with the Phantoms. “And at that point I wasn’t really thinking. I don’t even know. I wasn’t really sure what was going through my head.”

He stopped all five Washington shots he faced.

Lyon, who was sent back down to AHL Lehigh Valley on Monday with Flyers goalie Brian Elliott healthy, played in three total games with Philadelphia. After his debut, he got his first NHL start against New Jersey Thursday and then started against Ottawa on Saturday.

The goaltender said nerves have never really been an issue when he enters a game in relief and with the schedule, there wasn’t really time for nerves to set in when he got a heads up that he would be making his first start. After the game in Washington, the Flyers took a late train to New Jersey, where Lyon didn’t get to sleep until just before 4 a.m. His biggest concern the next morning was finding some coffee.

He didn’t play quite as well in his two starts but they weren’t terrible. Lyon played a full game against the Devils, getting beat four times on 22 attempts, and then allowed three goals on 23 shots Saturday before getting pulled after two periods versus the Senators.

“You’d like to do better,” Lyon said. “You’d like to pitch two straight shutouts but I think my first two games with the Phantoms I gave up five in each so I’m already doing better than I was a year ago.”

Now that his debut is behind him and he got his feet wet, he’s focused on getting back to the NHL.

“I think that they’re happy that I’m not going to go in there and get lit up for five in the first period every time,” Lyon said. “That’s the biggest hurdle that you have to jump over. I didn’t play my best, but I put out a respectable appearance. Now I’m ready to go and know that I can play at that level. I think once I get a little more time there I can be really good at that level, just the same exact transition as coming into the AHL last year.”

Roster moves: Prior to Tuesday’s practice, the Phantoms announced that they returned on-loan forwards Steven Swavely and Alex Krushelnyski to ECHL Reading.

Swavely, a Reading native, has two goals and two assists in 19 games with the Phantoms this season. In Krushelnyski’s 21 games with Lehigh Valley he has three goals and three assists.

That means forward Corban Knight is healthy and will return to the lineup Wednesday night against Charlotte. Knight has been injured since Jan. 5 and should make Lehigh Valley stronger. Phantoms coach Scott Gordon said Knight was probably the team’s best two-way player. Knight has been used on the power play and penalty kill and he’s also been a quality option for taking faceoffs.

“It’s great that he’s coming back because he does so much for our team but at the same time it was probably a good thing for a player like Faz [Radel Fazleev] and [Nic Aube-]Kubel, just to get more ice time and more situational things,” Gordon said. “As a result, I think we’ll probably be a stronger team with him [Knight] being out of the lineup and then when he gets back in the lineup, obviously, with those other players getting more ice time and playing better, that just makes us that much stronger with him in it.”

Notes: Lehigh Valley has been on a roll lately winning six of their last nine games with just two regulation losses during that stretch. … Charlotte is the only Eastern Conference team with more goals scored this season (159) than the Phantoms' 156. Despite a little more offense in the same number of games (47) Lehigh Valley, which sits second in the Atlantic Division, has seven more standings points than the Checkers, who are fifth and would miss the playoffs if they began today.